Central Research Interests

Lay theories about willpower: consequences, mechanisms, and age differencies

Self-regulation and self-control across the life-span

Implicit motives, explicit motives, and goals

Brief Research Statement

In my research I am interested in determinants, processes, and outcomes of successful self-regulation, and goal-striving. My research interests are focused on two main topics: 1) lay theories about willpower and their effect on successful self-regulation and goal-striving and 2) the role of implicit motives, explicit motives, and personal goals for differences in affective experience and behavior.

Concretely, I linked ego-depletion research with the lay theory approach. I showed that the way people think about acts of self-control (as consuming from a limited vs. as a non-limited resource) affects their self-regulation ability and their personal goal striving (Job, Dweck, & Walton, 2010). This research suggests that people get impaired in their self-control capacity after a demanding task only if they believe that strenuous tasks deplete resources, but not if they believe that demanding tasks are energizing. Continuing this research, I am presently investigating mechanisms mediating the effects of lay theories on self-regulation and expanding the research towards interventions. Furthermore, my current research interests are focused on the development of implicit theories about willpower across the life-span and whether effects of willpower theories (e.g., on self-regulation and well-being) vary with age.

In my second line of research I am interested in processes and outcomes of implicit motive satisfaction. In a recent project, we tested the assumption that implicit motives involve the desire for specific affective experiences. In the domain of close relationships, we showed that frequent experiences of one’s preferred affect – affect that satisfies one’s implicit motives – can lead to enhanced relationship satisfaction (Job, Bernecker, & Dweck, 2012). Further, we could show that if a motive cannot be satisfied, as it is the case when people have explicit motives or strive for explicit goals that are not congruent with their implicit motive dispositions, it has detrimental effects on self-regulation and well-being (e.g., eating behavior, Job, Oertig, Brandstätter, & Allemand, 2010).